Treyfish
Moderator
Life with the emperors</HEADLINE>
Mawson Station lies on an isolated outcrop of rock at the edge of the Antarctic plateau almost 5000 kilometres south-west of Australia. In winter, temperatures can plummet to minus 31; there are only two hours of sunlight a day and howling storms can blow with winds of up to 180kmh.
Being in the Antarctic was described by a member of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition to the region in 1910 as "the most isolated way of having a bad time that has ever been devised".
In this most unforgiving of environments, where a simple mistake can cause serious injury or death, a highly trained and multi-skilled team of 17 people live in the isolation and darkness at Australia's longest operating research facility in Antarctica.
As part of his work at Mawson, US-born biologist Gary Miller regularly travels 40 kilometres from the station to the Auster emperor penguin rookery. It had been discovered previously that the penguin chicks had antibodies to a deadly virus found in chickens and other domestic poultry - infectious bursal disease - rarely detected in wild birds.
With field assistant Robyn Mundy, Dr Miller hopes to solve the mystery of why so many chicks harbour the antibodies, research that is vital in defeating other viruses such as avian flu threatening worldwide bird populations. It may also help to explain how it jumps to other species.
"Our concern is knowing how a domestic poultry disease got to the Antarctic," Dr Miller said. And he wants to know if the chicks are exposed to the viruses through their parents, the environment or other local birds such as skuas or giant petrels....{snip}.The rest of the story is about penguins in general:tiphat: http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/life-with-the-emperors/2008/07/12/1215658193683.html
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- July 13, 2008</DATE>
Mawson Station lies on an isolated outcrop of rock at the edge of the Antarctic plateau almost 5000 kilometres south-west of Australia. In winter, temperatures can plummet to minus 31; there are only two hours of sunlight a day and howling storms can blow with winds of up to 180kmh.
Being in the Antarctic was described by a member of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition to the region in 1910 as "the most isolated way of having a bad time that has ever been devised".
In this most unforgiving of environments, where a simple mistake can cause serious injury or death, a highly trained and multi-skilled team of 17 people live in the isolation and darkness at Australia's longest operating research facility in Antarctica.
As part of his work at Mawson, US-born biologist Gary Miller regularly travels 40 kilometres from the station to the Auster emperor penguin rookery. It had been discovered previously that the penguin chicks had antibodies to a deadly virus found in chickens and other domestic poultry - infectious bursal disease - rarely detected in wild birds.
With field assistant Robyn Mundy, Dr Miller hopes to solve the mystery of why so many chicks harbour the antibodies, research that is vital in defeating other viruses such as avian flu threatening worldwide bird populations. It may also help to explain how it jumps to other species.
"Our concern is knowing how a domestic poultry disease got to the Antarctic," Dr Miller said. And he wants to know if the chicks are exposed to the viruses through their parents, the environment or other local birds such as skuas or giant petrels....{snip}.The rest of the story is about penguins in general:tiphat: http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/life-with-the-emperors/2008/07/12/1215658193683.html
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ISEASES OF ANTARCTIC WILDLIFE